Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

Reuters: Republican Party Backs FATCA Repeal Resolution

A follow-up article from Patrick Temple-West at Reuters:

http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2014/01/24/republican-party-backs-fatca-repeal-resolution/

Some highlights:

Jan 24 (Reuters) – The Republican National Committee (RNC) on Friday called for the repeal of a U.S. anti-tax-evasion law, siding with big banks, libertarians and American expatriates that have criticized the Obama administration statute.

At its winter meeting in Washington, the RNC approved by voice vote a resolution in favor of abolishing the 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), set to take effect in July, marking the party’s first explicit attack on the law.

FATCA will require most foreign banks and investment funds to report to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service information about U.S. customers’ accounts worth $50,000 or more. The law was enacted after a scandal involving Americans hiding assets in Swiss bank accounts to dodge U.S. taxes.

Critics have blasted the law as an unfair government overreach and invasion of financial privacy.

“The Republican National Committee … urges the U.S. Congress to repeal FATCA,” said the measure, staking out a campaign position ahead of 2014’s mid-term elections.

On Wednesday, with the RNC vote expected to occur, a senior Treasury Department official said the vote would not hurt the administration’s efforts to implement FATCA via a web of tax information-sharing agreements with other countries.

 

 

34 thoughts on “Reuters: Republican Party Backs FATCA Repeal Resolution

  1. Democrats Abroad’s Recommended Reforms (from their website):

    https://www.democratsabroad.org/group/da-international/fbarfatca-task-force-page-updated

    “From our analysis of the data on the impact and our discussions with regulators, legislators and tax advisors, the Task Force established the following proposed reforms:

    Define a foreign or offshore account that must be reported as an account in a country other than one’s country of residence, thereby recognizing our legitimate need for local banking services. This would also relieve the IRS of the burden and distraction of scrutinizing filings that detail legitimate overseas accounts;

    Raise the FATCA reporting threshold for overseas Americans to $1 million, therefore putting the focus on taxpayers with wealth that is sizeable enough to justify the costly and complex investment structures normally used to conceal assessable earnings;(4)

    Index the reporting threshold to inflation so that it goes up every year just as the Section 911 income exclusion does;

    Add a provision that excuses anyone who does not owe taxes (because of the Section 911 Foreign Earned Income Exclusion or any other exemption or a tax treaty) from the obligation to file FATCA form 8983, regardless of the reporting threshold;

    Merge the FBAR reporting requirement with the developing FATCA legislation to eliminate duplication in filings;

    Offer true amnesty to overseas Americans who are delinquent taxpayers, inviting them to pay what they may owe and restore their status as tax-compliant citizens.”

    VERY WEAK Dems Abroad!

    It seems like in principle you are quite okay with CBT with no representation or public services, FuBAR, Reed Amendment, Exit Tax, etc.

    You are in the best position to bring an end to the mass screwing of 7.6 million expats. The Democratic Party is the main one responsible for screwing Americans abroad. Yet you are all too blindly loyal to your party to rock the boat and demand REAL CHANGE.

  2. Could Expats Decide the Outcome of the 2016 Presidential Election?

    http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/could-expats-decide-the-outcome-of-the-2016-presidential-election-242288261.html

    “In past years, the Democratic party had a virtual stronghold on the expat community vote in presidential elections. This year may be different. The Republican National Committee (RNC) is making a strong case for US expats living abroad to vote Republican. The party has begun a campaign to repeal FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which is causing an uproar throughout the world.”

    “The RNC believes FATCA violates American citizens’ right to privacy. The resolution to repeal FATCA gained full support of the RNC Resolution Committee, as well as 26 co-sponsors, which virtually guarantees it will pass when voted on at the party’s winter meeting later this month.”

  3. @FromtheWilderness

    Wouldn’t that be something, if we were being fought over?
    Didn’t Brock once upon a time have a hate-on for Greenback Expat Services?

  4. @bubblebustin

    As we keep saying, FATCA is creating some very strange bedfellows. Who would ever have thought that the Green Party, the NDP and the Republicans would be on the same side of an issue? And who would have thought the same thing about the Conservatives and the Democrats (though we still don’t know for certain about that one)?

  5. @Deckard1138

    How can we all help but be all on the same side, when we side on what’s right and just?
    Anyone who doesn’t side with us is dead WRONG! Believe it. In the end, we will be on the right side of history, of liberty.

  6. SEE UPDATE ON THIS: https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/01/30/25361/

    From Terry McBride, The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon:

    George Prior, Prior Consultancy, UK

    Republicans’ “common sense” fightback against FATCA championed by global advisory giant

    -FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-

    January 26 2014

    The move by Republicans to champion the repeal of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has been hailed as “a step in the direction of common sense” by the boss of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organizations.

    The comments from Nigel Green, the founder and chief executive of deVere Group, come after the Republican National Committee (RNC) voted Friday to adopt a resolution to repeal the U.S. law, which is purportedly aimed at cracking down on tax evasion.

    Mr Green, whose firm has more than 70,000 clients worldwide, including many American expatriates, says: “The RNC’s vote to support the repeal of this damaging law, that was slipped into the 2010 HIRE Act and wasn’t reviewed properly by Congress, is a step in the right direction for common sense.

    “I hope that this heralds the start of the critical review that FATCA should have already been subject to, which has not taken place to date; plus the start of a national and international conversation on this immensely important issue – again something, that has to date not yet taken place.

    “The Republicans’ bold stance is part of a groundswell of anti-FATCA feeling in Washington and beyond and, to my mind, it represents real progress in the fightback against a law that has a host of serious unintended adverse consequences.”

    He continues: “FATCA is hugely expensive to implement – costs that will surely be passed on to the public – and highly ineffective. It will do little, if anything at all, to tackle the serious challenge of offshore tax evasion as it does not actively target tax cheats. Instead it relies upon a ‘dragnet approach’ to haul in the personal financial information of millions of ordinary Americans – the vast majority of whom are not suspected of owing taxes – on the off chance they happen across some illegally hidden assets.

    “All Americans should be concerned about FATCA because it will reduce foreign investment in the U.S. thereby threatening American jobs, fuel the likelihood of tax hikes, increase consumer costs for dealings with banks and other financial institutions, potentially damage important international trade relations, and it will – and already is – turning American citizens who live and/or work outside the U.S., and American firms operating globally, into financial pariahs.”

    The RNC’s vote to back a FATCA repeal follows Senator Rand Paul’s opposition last year when he introduced legislation, citing privacy concerns, to have parts of the controversial law scrapped.

    FATCA, which the Obama administration intends to implement from July 1 2014, requires every single financial institution in the world to report all their American clients’ financial activities directly to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), or be subject to a 30 per cent withholding tax.

    -ENDS-

  7. Pingback: The Isaac Brock Society

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